GARLANDS Call Centres vowed not to rest on its laurels last night after creating 200 more jobs in Middlesbrough.

The success of the company since opening operations in the town has been meteoric, a trend it hopes to continue emulating.

Garlands broke out of its Hartlepool stronghold at the start of last year to launch operations in Centre NorthEast, in Middlesbrough.

That expansion was to accommodate custom from Internet provider Freeserve. That success helped bring further work with Virgin Mobile and other customers.

Freeserve has asked Garlands to take on more work, dealing with its broadband services, which created the 200 vacancies.

The call centre will provide customer service and technical support for Freeserve users, as well as dealing with administration and sales.

It takes the total number of Garlands employees to about 2,000, making it the second largest private sector employer on Teesside.

The company has two call centres in Hartlepool Marina, as well as the Middlesbrough operation.

David Ewing, client services director, said: "This is testament to the success that we have delivered to date.

"We are working with blue- chip companies and we want to be associated with blue- chips.

"They exude quality and we would like to think we exude blue-chip quality also."

Mr Ewing said the company was always looking for new customers and opportunities, and had the capacity in Middlesbrough for further jobs expansions.

"We are committed to growth, whether that is in Middlesbrough or Hartlepool," he said.